---
title: But the emperor heard of it, and forbade the trees to be touched, sa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the emperor heard of it, and forbade the trees to be touched, saying, ‘Let them alone; I like to see them there! Who acts: emperor, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Boys With the Golden Stars, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the emperor heard of it, and forbade the trees to be touched, saying, ‘Let them alone; I like to see them there!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** emperor, I · **What happens:** hear, forbid, touch, say, let, like · **To what, where:** trees · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg641:35:42
# text = But the emperor heard of it, and forbade the trees to be touched, saying, ‘Let them alone; I like to see them there!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	forbade	forbid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	touched	touch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the emperor |  |  |  |  | of place | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of it=Stimulus |
| 2 | **forbid** | past | the emperor *not said here* | the trees |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer tree=Theme |
| 3 | **touch** | to-infinitive · passive | the emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive |  | trees *= tree* |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 6 | **like** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | trees *= tree* |  | there |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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